Trump Is Not A ‘Wrecking Ball,’ GOP Supporter Says Ahead Of CPAC Conference

With inter-party questions over the direction of the GOP, an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump said he was not a “wrecking ball” within the ranks of the Republicans.

Trump is scheduled to speak Sunday for the annual summit of the Conservative Political Action Conference. It will be his first formal appearance since leaving office in January and the former president is widely expected to lay claim to the party leadership.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., a vocal supporter of the former president, was quoted by The Hill as saying Trump was not a toxic element of the GOP.

Trump is a “team builder and not a wrecking ball,” he said.

The CPAC conference in Florida kicked off on Thursday. Among the notable members of the GOP brass on tap to speak are former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Several of those slated to speak are rumored to be seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

According to Fox News, Trump is “warming up to the idea of a 2024 run, and walking right up to the line of announcing another campaign," sources familiar with his speech said.

That in turn exposes some of the deep divisions within the party. In Trump’s second impeachment, a handful of Republicans crossed party lines to vote in favor of the charges filed in the House and for conviction in the Senate.

Though he was not among those in the party to vote against Trump during the impeachment proceedings, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump was “morally responsible” for attacks on the Capitol on Jan. 6. The former president responded by calling McConnell a “political hack.”

The weekend conference, sponsored and organized by the American Conservative Union, features panels that run parallel to many of the unfounded claims put forward by Trump that the election was stolen, such as “Other Culprits: Why Judges & Media Refused to Look at the Evidence,” according to National Public Radio.

But for Liz Cheney, a member of the House who crossed party lines on the impeachment, the former president should be disavowed.

"I've been clear in my views about President Trump and the extent to which, following Jan. 6, I don't think he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country,” she said.